South Korea's 14 'super-rich' rake in more than $930,000 a month

By Ko Dong-hwan

In the money: Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology Chairman Kwon Oh-hyun. / Korea Times file

There are 14 “super-rich” salary men in South Korea earning more than a billion won ($930,000) a month, according to government statistics. The top earner raked in 2.7 billion won a month, which is 810 times the nation’s average monthly wage.

The number of super-rich is based on a tally as of November 2017 calculated by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the National Health Insurance Service. It was released on Monday.

The figure increased by three from the previous year. It shows that the country’s wage polarization worsened over the year, with low-to-medium income earners’ wages remaining almost static while high-income earners’ wages increased.

The Gini index for 2017 was 0.357, which increased by 0.003 from the previous year, according to Statistics Korea. The index is a measure of statistical dispersion intended to represent the income or wealth distribution of a nation’s residents. It is the most commonly used measure of inequality. A Gini reading of zero represents perfect equality while a figure of 1 expresses maximum inequality.

Most of those in the top 14 were owners of major conglomerates or businessmen. The top earner, although unidentified, was not from one of those “well-known global conglomerates” but the CEO of “an ordinary company with healthy business records,” according to the Chosun Ilbo. Also included on the list was Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology Chairman Kwon Oh-hyun, who earned 2.3 billion won a month on average from January to June.

Next to the circle of super-rich were those earning more than 78.1 million won a month, a threshold over which the insurance service charges a fee up to 2.39 million won. There were 3,816 on the list, representing 0.02 percent of the nation’s 16.6 million salary men.

According to the insurance service, salary men include company owners, office workers, high-paid professionals like lawyers and doctors and public officers and teachers.